[Usefulness of Helicobacter pylori detection from feces specimens of the patients with peptic ulcer by polymerase chain reaction].

Detection of Helicobacter pylori was studied on the feces and biopsy specimens of 91 patients with gastric ulcer by using cultured and polymerase chain reaction methods. Number of samples from feces and biopsy specimens were 1 (1.1%) and 56 (61.5%) by culture method, on the other hands 49 (53.8%) and 70 (76.9%) in polymerase chain reaction method, respectively. Sensitivity of polymerase chain reaction applied to feces and biopsy specimens were 68.1 and 97.2, respectively. Noninvasive diagnosis such as detection of organisms from feces is effective for patients who have difficulty in collecting the gastric biopsy specimens. Infection route was not clarified, however, fecal-to-oral transmission was strongly suggested by the fact that the organisms were detected from feces samples in this study.